Monday, February 28, 2011

Bloomington Gun Show Accident

Two men were injured in an accidental shooting Saturday morning at the ECA Gun and Knife Show at Bloomington’s Sale Barn.

An attendee at the show was handling a mini-14 semiautomatic rifle at about 11:15 a.m. As the patron was laying the rifle back on a vendor table, the gun accidentally discharged, said McLean County Sheriff Mike Emery.

“The round went through a post, through a person and then into another person,” Emery said.

So, applying the one-strike-you're-out rule, we've got to include the seller of that gun, the one who handled it when in "accidentally" went off all by itself, and of course, the organizers of the show.

12 comments:

"So, applying the one-strike-you're-out rule, we've got to include the seller of that gun, the one who handled it when in "accidentally" went off all by itself, and of course, the organizers of the show."

Let's call that rule by what it is - it's the "MikeB is King rule". You just want to be able to rule over other people...too bad you aren't king and you aren't going to be king - EVER!!!

Because firearms ARE dangerous and it's nearly impossible to verify the safe gun handling skill of visitors, every gun show I have been to has a strict "no loaded firearms" policy at the door. The actions of all vendor guns must be zip-tied closed (or open) and anyone bringing a gun in must do the same (they have a couple of experienced gun handlers that check the firearm and zip-tie the actions).

Whether they had such a policy at that gun show, or how that firearm even got a loaded round in the chamber, would be very interesting indeed.

Many years ago I was in a gun store and I was a regular. I would hit it when ever my work took me in that direction.

There was two patrons who were very odd acting and kept handling every shot gun on the rack furthest from the counter. Even the clerk noticed it and got my attention and I walked back to that area of the store. As I approached they seemed quite furtive and after a couple of whispers left the store. The clerk followed them out and had a conversation with them and they took off to a bus stop. When he returned I was trying to put the guns they had been handling back in order. As is my custom every gun I touch was opened to check the action. The third or forth gun I opened had a live round in the chamber. I immediately called the clerk over and we went through every gun on the rack. These a-holes had loaded nine shotguns intentionally and put them back in the rack.

To blame the gun shop owner would be ridiculous, he was called names by the two hoodlums who had done this as they were leaving and called a racist for singling them out. Fiendish want to cause an accident? Were they planning on returning and using the loaded guns as tools in a robbery? No one knows but they had intentionally created a deadly accident waiting to happen.

This is why the four rules are so absolutely critical to follow no matter what the situation. Guns don't go off unless someone pits the booger hook on the bangswitch

Anonymous I don't know that I would necessarily penalize the gun show organizers for believing they had allowed a safe, sane and sensible person into their gun show as a vendor or as an attendee.

If they have a second accidental shooting, then that would suggest the organizers are incompetent.

But for the vendor to not know or to fail to be sure weapons are not loaded? WHY would it be a fair or desirable not to penalize this person?

Or the customer? Just setting down a firearm and it goes off, without that person being careless, or arguabley reckless?

The MikeB rule is common sense, not some monarchistic megalomania.

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with that, anonymous, at least when it comes to firearms? That suggests you are an unimaginative ideologue,since you can't even come up with an original identity for yourself.

No. That is absolutely not what I am saying. What i am saying is fromthe information we have, blaming ANYONE is premature. Someone, either intentionally or mistakenly, loaded that firearm.

It clearly did not load it self. The rifle in question, if the media report is correct has a removable magazine. To have a round show up in a chamber is not easy to explain.

I have a belief this will be determined to either be criminal negligence or mischief...

I am not absolving anyone nor am I accusing anyone we simply do not have enough evidence to go forward. My previous post was to show that sometimes despite the best efforts of a diligent and attentive sales person, stuff might happen.

Dog Gone is much more reasonable than I am. While I was writing the post, deciding monarchically whom to blame, I seriously considered a blanket punishment for everyone in the building and all their relatives.

But, not wanting to be as extremist in the other direction as some of my antagonists, I settled on the ones I mentioned.

C'mon P, the guy handling the gun, who put his "booger hook on the bang-switch" as you put it, has to be held responsible for that, and even more so the owner of the gun. I could be swayed by Dog Gone to leave the organizers alone, but those two should definitely pay.

I said we do not have enough evidence From the facts available to make any judgements. The firearm in question has a detachable magazine. If the mag was out of the weapon and the action was zip tied, getting it loaded would have taken some effort.

Seeing as a gun show is a public event we have no idea of the clientele or their motives. I believe it's very possible the gun was loaded without the knowledge of the clerk/owner